VF:
You have put forward two solutions for Ethiopia
that seem to conflict with each other. In one instance, you seem to
suggest two states: Kushitic/Oromo/Ethiopian and Semitic/Amhara/Abyssinian
states. In another instance, you seem to suggest that the present
day Ethiopia should adopt the name Abyssinia from Oromo to Tigray.
If the present day Ethiopia
changes its name to Abyssinia, should everyone else be called by the
name that represents only the minority, the Habashas? Isn’t the
inclusion of Oromos in Abyssinia a mistake?

Prof:
You refer to my article Kushitic Oromo Ethiopia and Semitic Amhara
Abyssinia! There I stressed that it is historically erroneous and
politically misleading for the Amhara – Tigray ruled country to
change its real name, Abyssinia, and pretend to be called by a name
like Ethiopia that is totally irrelevant to these two peoples, who
descend from the ancient Axumite Abyssinians, who in turn are the
offspring of one Ancient Yemenite (so please, do not confuse, they
are non-Arabic) tribe that we first attested on Ancient Yemenite
epigraphic documentation. We know of course that for the needs of
his royal propaganda the invader of Ethiopia, which is present day
Sudan, king Ezana of Axumite Abyssinia called himself ‘King of
Ethiopia’, and he truly ruled the southern part of Ethiopia, all
that area of the Butana desert of Sudan that the Ancient Greeks and
Romans were calling Insula Meroe, island Meroe, since surrounded by
Atbara, the United Nile, the Blue Nile and lake Tana. The Abyssinian
control did not reach Ptolemais Theron, present day Suakin, the
Ptolemaic and later Roman colony at the Sudanese Red Sea coast; it
did not reach either the flow of the Blue Nile or even lake Tana
itself, although the lake was not far from the Axumite borders. Last
but not least, Ezana’s control did not reach further in the north,
the old Kushitic capital of Napata (present day Karima), let alone
Meroitic territories further in the north, Dongola, Kerma and the
3rd and 2nd cataracts’ area. A few successors to Ezana may have kept
their control on that part of Ethiopia, but after the end of the 5th
century and the rise of the three Christian states in Sudan, Nobatia,
Makkuria, and Alodia, the Axumite kingdom of Abyssinia did not
control any area on the present day soil of Sudan, or if you want,
did not control any area belonging to the ancient Meroitic kingdom
of Ethiopia. Consequently, they had – already by that time – lost
any legitimacy to the name of ‘Ethiopia’; we know of course that the
kings of Axum kept using it among their royal titles but this
propaganda was related to the Christianization of their state. The
use of the name ‘Ethiopia’ they were making was of Biblical
dimensions, since according to their erroneous and falsified
interpretations the christening of Abyssinia was prophesized long
ago by means of the Biblical verse stating that Kush (and in the
Greek translation of the Alexandrian 70 Elders ‘Ethiopia’) will
extend its hand to the Lord.

Of
course, all this is just medieval non-sense! You cannot make ‘use’
of a verse stating that another country will accept a faith, and
pretend that this verse refers to you because you accepted that
faith, whereas the other country did not! Either you invade it or
not, you prove nothing! Whereas it is evident that there were
political reasons, an ideological – theological dimension cannot be
denied to that attack of Ezana. But it is a childish attempt to
vindicate the Biblical prophecy for Axum. For both the Old Testament
and the New Testament, Axumite Abyssinia just does not exist! The
Biblical verse refers to Ethiopia, that is Sudan, and can refer to
the formation of the three Christian states of Sudan, or to the
later acceptance of Islam by the Kushite Ethiopians, or to something
that has not happened; all these possible interpretations are of
course for those who do not accept what is historically correct that
the verse refers to its own historical environment, and to
developments much earlier than the Christianization or the
Islamization of Ethiopia.

As
you know, the term has always been – throughout the Abyssinian Dark
Ages – a shadowy reference to the deeds of Ezana and to the
Abyssinian interpretation of the Biblical verse. But from the
beginning of the Modern Colonial times, the tiny kingdom of Abyssinia
that was limited in its small Amhara territory because of the
Islamic Ottoman control of the Red Sea coasts became the object of
Western academic Orientalist research and, in parallel, the stake of
the colonial involvement and manipulation. Abyssinia could be useful
– if properly manipulated – to two visions of colonial Africa that
were fighting against one another, and at the same time they were
cooperating in kicking the Ottoman Empire out of its vast
possessions in the continent (no less than 7 million square
kilometer of African soil belonged to the Ottoman Empire at the eve
of Napoleon’s disembarking at Abukir – Alexandria), and in
preventing other powers, mostly Germany and Italy, from getting
sizable portions of the African cake!

The
two visions were the horizontal and the vertical ones, or if you
want the alignment with the parallels or the placement on the
meridian’s way. The former expresses the French approach that Africa (or most of it) can be unified under Colonial rule through an
expansion from the West to the East, from
Mauritania and Senegal to Sudan, and from Congo to Somalia. The
opposite, British, way insisted in proving that the easiest colonial
control of Africa can be assured by means of a South to North axis.
Finally, the British were successful in controlling an uninterrupted
territory from South Africa to Alexandria. And the French, who
failed to reach uninterruptedly from the Atlantic coast to the Red Sea coast or to the Eastern African coast (Djibouti
and Madagascar have no land connection with the other French African
dominions in Africa), were successful in controlling the
major part of
Africa. But the two colonial axes’ conflict was terrible. The
British had to do all they could to stop French short of reaching
the Eastern African coast. It was a very long project and fight; it
lasted an entire century. The French were slowly advancing from the
West, and they had the upper hand in Egypt. Facing an 1870 defeated
France (by the Prussian army), England had still difficulties to
prevail over the French in Egypt before 1882. What you see in
today’s Darfur is the continuation of problems ensuing from the
serious Fashoda event (19/9/1898) between the French Major J.B.
Marchand and the British Lord Kitchener that brought France and
England to the brink of war, just six years before they managed to
set up the Entente Cordiale.

Envisioning expansion and anticipating developments, the British
contacted the Abyssinian kingdom in the middle of the 19th century and
attempted to convince the powerless, underdeveloped, uneducated, and
isolated ruling class of Abyssinia about the importance of
expansion, exploits and neighboring lands’ annexation that would
permit – supposedly – the refractory court of the obscurantist
kingdom to obtain power. At that moment everything was at stake, and
one could not know what would come next. For the British it would be
far better that the small kingdom expanded towards the south of
present day Abyssinia
at a moment they had not yet achieved the establishment of their
‘meridian’ axis, and they were worried because of French successes.
The French could have reached – from Congo and Central Africa – the
South of Sudan and from there the south of present day Abyssinia. At a later stage they would be able to vanquish the inexperienced
soldiers of the old fashioned African monarchy, reducing the British
vertical vision to ashes. Abyssinian expansion to the Oromo and the
Ogaden lands was the work of subtle British diplomacy.

There
was another trap for the 19th and the 20th century Abyssinian kings, and
then fell even more easily there. French and other European scholars
were visiting all these parts of Africa either as missionaries and
political agents or as pioneers and decipherers. Not much time had
passed until they were able to read Gueze manuscripts and to
understand them better than the ignorant and uneducated monks of
Abyssinia whose
readings in Gueze literature were limited, derisory and
contemptible. Even today the situation did not turn better! The
authoritative Catholic Encyclopedia states the following about them
(entry Abyssinia): ‘The oldest
translation of the Bible into Ethiopian dates from the fourth
century, having been made in Gheez. Pell, Platt, and Dillman have
edited some of the manuscripts in London and Leipzig, but the
majority remain untouched, in convents of Abyssinian monks. The
present clergy are buried in a state of deplorable ignorance. Little
is required of secular priests beyond the ability to read and to
recite the Nicene creed, and a knowledge of the most necessary
liturgical rites. The monks in their numerous convents receive an
education somewhat more complete, and occasionally there are found
among them men versed in sacred hermeneutics, who can recite by
heart the entire Bible’.

The
second trap concerns precisely the introduction by the Abyssinian
authorities of the name of ‘Ethiopia’, and this has to do a lot with
the French ideological and cultural plans for the entire Middle
East. French, Italian, and other scholars convinced the various
successive ‘Negus’ and political rulers to obliterate the name of
Abyssinia and to introduce the name of
Ethiopia. This would serve a multifold colonial purpose that the
ignorant and naïve political class of Abyssinia could never imagine.

First of all, it would engulf Abyssinia deep into the marshes of
stagnation and underdevelopment on permanent basis because lack of
authenticity and cultural – national confusion is a very seminal
issue. Never a country with confused identity can access important
understanding, historical – political knowledge, real emancipation.
This trickery would keep Abyssinia permanently as a devoted member
of the Third World; truly speaking, it made of it a member of the
Fourth World, i.e. the abode of starvation, pestilence and
contamination. It ensured that never Abyssinian intellectuals would
attempt to reassess their Axum and Gondar past through modern
viewpoints in order to setup a new, genuinely modern and humanist,
but also authentically Axumite Abyssinian vision of the World.

Abyssinian pretensions to the name of Ethiopia
would in addition have an impact on part of the Middle East that concerned
France – and consequently England, Germany, Russia, and later the
USA – much more than marginal and peripheral Gondar! I refer to the area of the Arabic
speaking peoples, from Morocco
to Iraq, a vast area that was met with the very negative
developments the French and British colonialism provoked. To
extirpate illegally all these lands from their legitimate and
wholeheartedly accepted ruler, the Sultan and Caliph of the Ottoman
Empire, France diffused gradually a nationalist idea that was
completely rejected by the local people initially: the Pan-Arabism.
This falsehood was a fabricated bogus version of History that would
make of the Arabic speaking peoples a nation, and would bestow upon
them unbelievably exaggerated promises for wealth, development and
power. By forming the elite, the French created a dynamics that was
stimulated by agents, who were diffusing unprecedented hatred and
confusion about the non Arabic identity of the Arabic speaking
Muslims. To drive the Arabic speaking populations to advanced levels
of ignorance, and be therefore able to manipulate them at will
against their own interests, and their own countries, which were
under the
Ottoman Empire, France needed to keep them far from any serious
consideration, study, and research, let alone reassessment and
comprehensive use of their pre-Islamic and pre-Christian past.

Look the difference in the French colonial interference: whereas in
Greece, all the intellectuals, academia, politicians and even
average men were keen to learn – if they did not know – Ancient
Greek, and delve into what was said to be their own past, in Egypt
the first Egyptian to study, learn and be able to read Egyptian
Hieroglyphics appeared no less than 100 years after the decipherment
of Egyptian Hieroglyphics by Champollion! Ever since, the situation
turned even worse with the Greek secondary schools offering –
obligatory to all – courses of Ancient Greek, and the Egyptian
miserable intellectual and academic bogus-elite daring not to
introduce - even for one year - the study of Egyptian Hieroglyphics
in the Egyptian Secondary education, although there are people who
studied Egyptology in the University of Cairo, and they could teach.

Similar ignorance about the pre-Islamic and the pre-Christian past
reigns elsewhere: in Algeria, Tunisia, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Sudan,
etc. Why this is necessary for the colonial plans of France and
England you can see relatively easily. Greece
was to become part of Europe, whereas Egypt should be kept at a low
level country from where colonial powers would only extract
materials. Development is necessary in Europe, not in the colonized periphery. Of course, the promoting power
of the Islamic radicalism, fanaticism, extremism has been
France, and Europe in general. By doing their best to keep the
populations of the Arabic speaking countries far from their own past
(Phoenician, Aramaic, Babylonian, Egyptian, Meroitic-Ethiopian,
Carthaginian and Berberic) at a moment Islam was already
misinterpreted, misunderstood and ultimately lost, France and
England pushed these countries to Islamic terrorism. Of course, it
should be viewed as a very big plan, not something to be carried out
in a year or a decade. They even intended to use Islamic terrorism
against America;
they already did so three years ago. In a way it is colonial France
that prepared the minds and the hands of these suicide pilots of
September 11th. The Anti-Americanism that Europe still generates,
when intermingling with the dark ignorance and the hysteric hatred
that have been well prepared for 200 years, can create an
uncontainable explosive material that the Mankind will need many
decades to overcome.

Then you
understand that Sudan as a new country, with a past of just 48 years
of independence, should not be left with any chance to be attracted
by its Antiquities that were partly stolen by the bogus-academia of
France, Prussia, England and other countries. The robbery of Lepsius,
who transported in the 1840s colossal statues from Karima to Berlin
must be denounced, and the majestic Kushitic monuments must return
back to Napata, the capital of Taharqa.

Look now, for Egypt the colonial powers started their perverted work
early. For the rest (from Morocco to Iraq), they had the time to
advance the bogus-theory of Pan-Arabism, terribly oppressing and
tyrannizing the non Arabic-speaking minorities, Berbers (in Libya,
Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco and Mauritania), Copts and Nubians (in
Egypt) and Aramaeans (in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan,
Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and the Emirates), who are the absolute
ethnic (but not linguistic) majority of all these countries. On the
other hand, Sudan was so clearly unrelated to anything Arabic that
the colonial powers would have extreme difficulty to divert the
natural interest towards one’s past. That is why they kept Egyptians
there to diffuse confusion and ignorance, along with the vulgar
amalgam of Arabic nationalism and Islamic religious fanaticism, and
that is why they did not wish to have the name ‘Ethiopia’ accessible
for the Sudanese! It would create a dangerous challenge to the
disastrous colonial plan of pulling Sudan to the backward and
disastrous falsehood of Pan-Arabism.

At
the end, the use of the name ‘Ethiopia’ by Abyssinia would create the
oxymoron of the Abyssinians imposing their minority culture in the
country they tyrannize, and at the same time imposing as theirs the
name of a large part of the oppressed people, the Oromo and the Sidama. This can create only a disaster. That is why I put them in
front of the real mirror of history stating what belongs to whom!
And they were hysterically panicked because they know I am very
correct, and they have not much time left.

VF:
You are blaming Islamic extremism on colonial powers. Don’t you
think that the religion’s disciple’s misinterpretation in teaching
about Islam is more to blame?

Prof: I fully accept the reality of the negative developments within
Islam itself. It is crystal clear that if these earlier developments
had not taken place, and if the Western Colonial powers had not
found, met and observed the forefathers of the present day Islamic
terrorists, French and English agents, academia, intelligence and
diplomats would not have got the opportunity to manipulate them
further, to manage them in this disastrous way that they are not
able even to detect and realize. It is certain that within Islam a
gradual superposition of always more perverse, more deformed and
more devious theoretical systems created a lethal environment for
Lights, Philosophy, Great Ideas, Art Concepts, Knowledge and Wisdom.
The greatness of the Islamic civilization was truly targeted by
perverted and malignant false theoreticians and philosophers, who
had totally misunderstood its nature.

Whatever was shaped a School of Interpretation around Hanbal was
vicious alteration of the Spirit of Islam. On this was superimposed
an even worse development, the introspective system of Ibn Taimiya,
a reaction against the experience of the Crusaders. During those
times no one perceived Ibn Taimiya as a threat because he was
insignificant, and his theories could influence the minds of the low
level, uneducated, illiterate and marginal people. But the system
advanced and expanded a lot in the next three to four centuries to
the prejudice of the Erudite, the Learned, and the Wise scholars of
Islam who lost gradually their contact with the besotted and
fanaticized masses that were guided by the Satanic sheikhs –
followers of the perverted and barbaric system of Ibn Taimiya. When
the Sultans and the Shahs realized that there was a problem, the
locusts were already allover the place. The point of no return had
already been crossed when the fanatic, ignorant and Satanic sheikhs,
threatening with massive support they had gathered, obliged the
Sultan to close down the observatory of Istanbul,
as well as all centers of knowledge, research and creative thought.
The Closing down of the Ottoman State Observatory in 1579 is the
date of the real end of Islamic Civilization and of Islam itself.
Following that date barbarism replaced civilization throughout
Islam, and the last structures of civilization had ended
approximately 100 years before the arrival of Napoleon. The Islamic
World was out of competition with the West, and foreseeable future. So, you
understand that the main aspect of the problem is this, I absolutely
recognize that.

The
same barbaric and Satanic sheikhs rule many Islamic countries today.
This is
either seen, as in Iran, or hidden, as in Egypt,
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. They want to expand their bestial
antihuman system allover the world; this is what they believe when
they say that Islam will be accepted throughout the planet at the
end! Have no doubt that this barbarism is not Islam, and be sure
that the concept of Islam prevailing allover the world had
completely different meaning for great philosophers like Nezami,
Ferdowsi, Tabari, Makrizi, Ibn Rushd and Ibn Sina, Ibn Khaldoun and
Mohyieldin Ibn al Arabi.

VF:
You have suggested that Ethiopia is not a proper name for
Abyssinians but could be used by Oromos. It is true that the name
has Greek origin. In that sense, it is as foreign to Oromos as it is
to the Abyssinians. If you are suggesting that the Abyssinians
should not use it, why do you suggest it to the Oromos?

Prof: I did not suggest that the Abyssinians do not use it because
it is a name of foreign etymology, but because it never designated
them or their ancestors. I can tell you that only one participant
really understood what I was saying; my initial approach was not the
result or the expression of a prejudice against Amhara Abyssinians.
I wished only to place them in front of history’s mirror! In simple
words all my interventions were a way for me to warn the Abyssinian
dictators and say the following to them in public:

-Either you have the courage to admit in public that you want
Abyssinian culture, education, social

behavioral system, political
tyranny and bogus historical dogma imposed, and then you must have
the

courage of your opinion, and call all the country with a name
that expresses you and only you, as

dictators ruling against the
will of ¾ of the country’s population,

-Or
get out of Finfinne that you falsely call Addis Ababa, let the
Oromos, the Afars, the Sidamas and

the Ogadenis live in peace and
stop tyrannizing the country that has long been plunged in
pestilence,

starvation, and misery because of your criminal and uneducated rulers, the likes of Zauditu.

The Oromos are a very different case; people Kushitic par
excellence, the largest linguistic group of the Khammitic family of
African languages, a plausible descendant of the people of Ancient
Meroe, the strongest candidate to a conscious continuation of
African culture and language that covers a span of 4300 years of
documented history, the forthcoming Biyya Oromo can certainly be New
Meroe, then the name, certainly not Kushitic but Greek in origin,
can be selected because of its great historicity, and because of the
Western familiarity with this term.

This is the destiny of perverted dictatorial establishments like the
Abyssinian one; they are going to lose the territories that they had
illegally attacked and occupied, and at the same time they are going
to be deprived from the name that they had illegitimately usurped.

VF:
It appears that your major point in suggesting to Abyssinians to
drop the use of Ethiopia
is future economic interest. The following statements were excerpted
from your comments on Ethioindex.
“Since Arabic is spoken in Eritrea and to a lesser extent in
Abyssinia, a base for outsourcing in Mekele combining the two
countries (that should not be in war) would radiate to both Eastern
Africa and the Arabic speaking world; it would then cover a much
larger area. Think! Wake up! Get rid of the nightmare of the
‘Unknown Ethiopia’.” “… a mythical identity shaped around a name
that is foreign to Gueze and to all the modern languages of Abyssinia from Oromo to Tigray.” “… setting up a large Horn of Africa
Countries Union encompassing (from North to South)
Sudan, Abyssinia, Eritrea, Yemen, Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya,
Tanzania, Mozambique and Madagascar, and eventually Oman.” Would you
elaborate on that?

Prof:
No, it is not as you point out in the very beginning! The major
point is not economic interest, it is social – cultural – political
interest; without a clear perception of one’s identity, with much
left in mystery, with much existing under oppression, with much
being in conflict, the real social forces that can lead to economic
development cannot be released; they are held captive of the
mischief, the biased concepts, the historical falsifications, the
ideological aberrations. You see all that in the dreadful face of
present day Abyssinia, a country that devours its children.

On
the other hand, I did speak on the ‘Unknown Ethiopia’. There is not
a single person in Abyssinia, either of Semitic origin, among the
Amhara and the Tigray groups, or of Kushitic origin, among the
Oromos, the Sidamas, and others to have studied, absorbed,
assimilated and to have identified him/herself with the past of
‘Ethiopia’, with the Greek and Roman textual sources about Ethiopia,
with the Egyptian Hieroglyphic references to Ancient Kush/Ethiopia
/Sudan with the archeological and epigraphic documentation, the
monuments and the antiquities of Sudan. Of course, for the Semitic
usurpers of the name of ‘Ethiopia’, for the quasi-illiterate
Debteras of Abyssinia, it has no sense; they are absolutely alien to any element of
Ethiopian civilization. The Kushitic Oromo people have not yet
focused on their past, have not yet attempted a real itinerary of
cultural historical identity. So, to all the peoples of present day Abyssinia,
those who are related to and those who are unrelated to Ethiopia,
Ethiopia remains an absolutely unknown entity.

Analyzing my text, I must tell you that I said that Ancient
Ethiopian, ‘Meroitic’ is unrelated to Oromo, because although it is
plausible for modern researchers to establish a link between the two
languages under condition we advance in deciphering the first, this
has not yet been academically undertaken, and much less concluded. I
may have my suggestions, I may advance my theory, but I want to be
always impartial.

Yes, I
spoke ultimately about a Horn of Africa Union! But this was not the
first time! Earlier this year, I published an article in the Yemen
Times where I presented in a summarized form the historical
presence, roots, and commitment in Eastern Africa. I suggested that
Yemen quit the abominable and hilarious Arab League, an
organization that attempts to impose a bogus-historical dogma, that
is the existence of ‘Arab’ peoples in all its state-members, and in
this way the latter reach always extreme levels of tyrannical
oppression, as attested in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, in Assad’s Syria,
in Mubarak’s Egypt, and in the most repugnant and repulsively
tyrannical state in the World History, Saudi Arabia. I proposed
Yemen to follow another path, a short way to Democracy, Human
Rights, Multiculturalism, and Historical Authenticity. This can be
found in a multipartite Horn of Africa Union where Sudan, Eritrea,
Abyssinia, Somalia, Yemen, Djibouti, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique,
and even Madagascar and Oman participate. Well, either precisely
these states, if they are apt to establish the democratic structures
needed or the states that may derive from the aforementioned. You
know there is a great logic behind this multilingual, multicultural,
multiethnic and multi-religious Union I call for. It is not only the historical past of Yemen that had
colonized for a long period the Eastern Coast of Africa, from the
Horn area itself down to Dar es Salam in present day Tanzania.

A
correct understanding of the dynamics of the global world we are
currently living in leads anyone to realize that only big
state-units are going to survive and play a significant role in the
future. A 60 or 80 million people country is not important anymore;
I do not refer to Turkey
and to Pakistan, but to France and Germany! If Europe does not
advance according to the interests of the Franco-German axis, the
two countries will abandon the Union, implementing a full fusion.
For underdeveloped countries like Pakistan, Bangla Desh or
Indonesia, 130 or 220 million people do not create a real market
that could guarantee growth and development. If this is the
situation, geographic location matters a lot!

‘Accumulating’ 160 million people in a small corner of India, and
‘unfolding’ them around a strategic area are two different
situations. On the other hand, 220 million people scattered on a
multitude of islands, like the Indonesian Archipelago, cannot be
easily interconnected, and then communications become either slow or
expensive!

The
geographic location matters not only in itself but in its
relationship with other landmasses and/or countries. Indonesia
is the natural passage from Australia to China. This does not imply
a great system of communication, since Australia may be rich but
is a small 20 million people country. In addition, Indonesia is to
be found at the edge of dense navigation channel, namely the Malacca
Straits. On the other side of Sumatra Island, Singapore, Malaysia
and Thailand complete a picture. Perhaps there too, a Union between
Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and the French Indochina
countries, plus Philippines
and Burma could be envisaged, but the disparities are of colossal
dimensions. It is not sure at all that the leading regional
financial tiger Singapore and the economically developed and
advanced Malaysia
and Thailand would be willing to create a commercial, economic,
cultural and – even more so – political Union with poor and backward
countries like Indonesia,
Philippines, and Myanmar that are exposed to various religious
radicalisms and extremisms (Islamic, Christian and/or Buddhist).

The
geographic location of the Horn of Africa countries is very
privileged indeed. From Sudan to Mozambique and from the borders of
Central Africa and Congo to Oman and the Straits of Ormuz, a vast
landmass and an immense sea space control a great part of the global
communications and network connections. All the communications of
Europe, the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean worlds with
Eastern Africa, India,
South-East Asia, and China, and vice-versa pass from here. All the
communications between the South African countries with the Middle
East and Eastern Europe and vice versa also pass through there. The
area is by nature the open window of the entire African continent to
India.
It can become the exclusive passageway between India and Europe.
Furthermore, this geomorphic unit is the gateway of China to Africa
that is not only a target market but the best place for the future
need of China to outsource in a way to dominate the global
industrial scenery. This is something we have not yet seen!
Outsourcing has become a concern or a practice for America, Europe
and Japan. The overheated economy of China will soon face the need
for outsourcing. The Horn of Africa area is the best place for
industries targeting Africa, Middle East, Europe and Russia. Odessa
and Novorossiysk, for instance, are closer to Port Sudan than to
Shanghai!

The
combination of the geomorphic particularities, the linguistic
variety, the cultural propinquity, and the common stagnant
socio-economic situation, as well as the mutual desire for progress
and development, change, freedom and democracy, plus the bulk of 250
million people, consist in the ingredients of a success story that
the various invited peoples must express their worst self to make it
impossible to come!

VF: In the list
of countries in the previous question, you didn’t include either
Oromia or Ethiopia. Why?

Prof: As I told you either these countries or those deriving form
these!

VF:
One of the most subconscious decisions of our time in the Horn of
Africa region may be the process of separation of Eritrea from
Ethiopia. On both sides of the border, the Tigre and the Afar peoples live. It doesn’t
seem like natural separation, especially when you look at the Voices
of the World map in Part III of this interview. What is striking is that Abyssinians live on
both sides of the border in small pockets. Politically, they are
active with young and inexperienced rebels who became
leaders of their respective countries. These
leaders and their intellectual supporters seem politically less
conscious than a far less educated Oromo rebel leader who told the
Government of Somalia, when that government asked the rebel leader
to cede a part of Oromo country to Somalia, that one can not expect
a person to live by cutting him at the waist.
Abyssinian politicians were the major decision makers in the
separation of Abyssinians of Eritrea from Abyssinians of
Ethiopia. The Kushitic peoples, while excluded from the major
decision making process, occupy the economic resource base of both
countries. In Ethiopia,
Oromos occupy a large swath of agriculturally fertile land whereas
in Eritrea, the Afar people occupy the Red Sea coast. What is your
observation?

Prof: You call it subconscious decision! Whose? If you name the
perpetrators, you will open the Pandora’s box! Your argumentation is
very true indeed! Eritrea is not an ethnic, monolithic, country.
Tigrinya and Arabic are the official languages. There are Afars, and
several other cultural, linguistic, religious, ethnic groups. It
looks like a multiculturalism laboratory! A hybrid state! It looks
strange if you still live with the obsession of nation – state in
the year 2004! Do not misinterpret me in this regard! I do not say
that this is not the norm, and I do not say this is not good! On the
contrary, it makes sense, and it is very good indeed! But it is not
the only way for a state to come to existence! Of course, it is
still easier – theoretically – for oppressed nations to come to
independence; but not necessarily! Tiny - 5 million people – Eritrea
became independent earlier and more easily than 30 million people
Oromo! Perhaps there has been an invisible hand! A small state that
has balanced relations with Libya and Israel in the Red Sea coast
opposite to Saudi Arabia, this is not a common Middle Eastern story!
You remember perhaps now better my sentence addressed to the
paranoid totalitarian Amhara group of Ethioindex ‘strengths are pulled and
not to your favour’! If Eritrea
was easy to come to surface, then one must be sure that Biyya Oromo
will be a reality shortly! I do not imply here that it would be the
exclusive result of foreign involvement, but one could not deny or
disregard this potentiality these days of globalization. Two
factors, first the lack of Democracy and the violation of Human
Rights, and second the incarceration of the country’s vital
resources that would generate the most explosive boom of economic
growth, would lead to the proper adhesion of the Oromo land into
the global economy, call for immediate intervention into the jail
called Abyssinia, a prison house of nations and nationalities.

These uneducated groups cannot understand that ruling a country in
this malignant, malevolent and malefic way of theirs is not
permissible anymore. As if to make a parody of a Latin poet, I would
say metaphorically ‘Zauditu died, Hitler died, and Meles is
gravely ill’!

The
truth is that the friction between colonial, state-run France and
globalizing, liberal America creates tectonic dimension events in
Africa and allover the world. Nothing is going to be as it is! And
in such an environment, what matters most is a people’s mobilization
for its ultimate independence and self-determination, and the
leaders’ shrewd mind and bold decisions.

VF:
Some Eritrean scholars argue that Axum was never Abyssinian. They have said
that the people of Eritrea
weren’t Ethiopian or Abyssinian before their creation as a colony.
What do you say to that?

Prof: Anyone can say anything! What were the people of Adulis in
the Antiquity? Mexicans? Did they fall from the moon? This is
particularly grave falsification of History! We have plenty of
proofs about what the people of the Eritrean coast have been
throughout the Ages! We have textual documentation, epigraphic
evidence, and archeological monuments. What are the hawalti, the
famous stelas, found on Eritrean soil? They are not quite similar to
those of Axum? Is there a great difference among the inhabitants of Hawalti
Melazo, and those of Axum and Yeha? What is the language of the Christian manuscripts that
are kept until now in the monasteries of
Eritrea? Slavic, Armenian or Tibetan? Are all these documents not
written in Gueze? What may be the dialectal difference between Gueze
in the coast and Gueze in Axum? The famous text of the 1st century CE
‘Periplus of the Red Sea’, written by an Egyptian Alexandrian
merchant and captain, leaves no doubt that the famous harbor – port
of call Adulis (nearby Massawa in today’s Eritrea) was part of the
kingdom of Zoscales, who was ruling from Axum, his capital. Several
centuries later, the Monumentum Adulitanum, as mentioned within the
Christian Topography of Cosmas Indicopleustes, recreates the same
environment about the Abyssinian people centered between Adulis and Axum. The Lake Tana area was out of the confines of the Christian kingdom that only
later expanded over there.

The holy enclosure at Axum, and the famous hawalti monuments with
the mysterious decoration. Some advanced the theory that the
decorative motifs make of the hawalti ‘miniatures’ of the Ancient
Yemenite ‘sky-scrappers’ the multistory houses that have been
preserved until today as a typical characteristic of urban
architecture in Yemen.

How
could they possibly be different, since they all originated from
Ancient Yemen? Those living in the Red Sea coast between Adulis and
Avalites (present day harbor Assab), and those living in the inland,
in Coloe (as the ‘Periplus of the Red Sea’ mentions) or in Axum,
they were all descendants of the Yemenite tribal state Habashat,
whose inhabitants crossed Bab al Mandeb in many repeated waves.

What else may one say? After the explosion of Islam the inhabitants
of the inland were isolated, whereas the coast dwellers intermingled
with ‘Arabs’? This is wrong, because the term is biased! These
‘Arabs’ are just Yemenites, because Yemenites are very different
from the Arabs in terms of ethnic origin (a distinct ethnic group,
of course Semitic, but Hebrews are Semitic as well without being
‘Arabs’), language, and scripture, as well as culture and religion.
The Arabs of Hedjaz went out of Arabia, but they were involved
rather in land expansion, since they did not have any maritime
inclination at all, quite contrarily to the Ancient Yemenites, who
were experienced navigators throughout the Indian Ocean, and the Red Sea. Of course, the Yemenites accepted Islam during the visit of
Ali, the first imam, while the Prophet Muhammad was still alive, and
they accepted Arabic as Islam’s holy language, but they did not
change their non-Arabic racial and ethnic identity.

So,
what is the difference between Yemenites, who moved to Axum in the year 200
BCE, and Yemenites who moved to Adulis in the year 800 CE? There is
no difference at all!

Beyond that point, one must certainly accept that the isolated in
the inland for centuries Abyssinians have certainly intermingled
with various Kushitic populations to some extent; but there were
Kushitic populations in the coast as well. So, practically speaking
there was no difference, except a stronger presence of Islam and of
the Arabic language in the coast. Eritrea, as a new country, cannot
be justified with arguments based in Ancient and Islamic history; it
can be justified in terms of Modern History, and of the free
willingness of free people to set up a multicultural state entity.
Free elections are needed in this regard, and I do not see in
Eritrea not only free elections, but even a free Internet forum! I
understand the existence of emergency, but there are limits…

If
the Eritrean government believes that obeying orders emanating from
groups and societies behind the political scenes is the safe way to
rule a country, I believe that they had the experience of more than
10 (ten) years independence in which they did not prove their
capacity to undergo structural changes and seek real development;
they only proved that they entered in wars with several neighboring
countries and they lost time, money and energy. They have got to
change their way in the future.

VF:
Interestingly, there are two camps within the Kushitic and the
Abyssinian groups. Abyssinians in Eritrea and Ethiopia have been at
loggerheads with each other for some time now. Some group of Oromos
are viewed by the Abyssinian groups in Eritrea
as a partner in their struggle whereas some Oromo groups in Ethiopia
work with Abyssinian groups. Such arrangement seems to be naturally
unhealthy. When Eritrea became independent from Ethiopia, it further
divided the Afar people into three countries (Ethiopia, Eritrea and
Djibouti). Almost all Oromo political groups were indifferent on
this issue. One would expect that as a more closely related people
to the Afar people than the Abyssinians, the Oromo would feel
sympathetic more towards the Afar people than the Abyssinians. What
is your opinion on this?

Prof: All that you say concerns the past, and proves that the Oromo
leadership is not well experienced in the tactics of diplomacy,
foreign policy, and international relations. This is not strange and
this is not unique; other oppressed peoples’ leadership finds itself
engulfed in worse situation, or happens to be the object of
undetected manipulations. All this also testifies to a certain lack
of political conscience among the average Oromo people, which again
is not strange! When you are focusing on daily issues, and you are
mostly concerned with oppression at the cultural and the social
levels, you do not have time to consider alliances. But I would of
course understand that the only target for the Oromo leadership and
the Oromo people is the replacement of the Abyssinian regime in
Finfinne – Addis Ababa.

VF:
As you well know, Oromos are the majority in the present day Ethiopia.
Sooner or later, they are going to get their full freedom. This can
be viewed within two contexts. Full freedom on their land in a
country called Ethiopia or total independence from a country called
Abyssinia or Ethiopia.
Oromo scholars are still debating on which course may be a better
one for the future of the Oromo people. Some argue that Oromos
should behave as the head of the family of nations in the Horn of
Africa region and spearhead bringing stability and development in
the region instead of overly focusing on the Oromo people’s
political right only. If Abyssinians can exercise full freedom on
their land in a country called Ethiopia,
do you think it is a viable and more practical option for a
federation or confederation arrangement?

Prof:
When the independent Oromos will be determined to call their new,
free, country ‘Ethiopia’, the Abyssinians will not have the
possibility to call their area ‘Ethiopia’ too! There isn’t
a situation with Austria
no 1 and Austria no 2! They will call their area ‘Abyssinia’, ‘Amhara’,
‘Axum’ or anything else. For what may follow an independence of the
Oromo, I can tell you that it will be a real earthquake, a badly
needed earthquake that will damage the intruders’ interests only,
and beyond that term all options are open. Sidamas, Ogadenis, the
rest of the south, and eventually the Afars will be free. Possibly
there will be two different states one around Axum and Mekele, and another around
Gondar, for the Tigray and the Amhara. It is necessary that all the
various peoples of the area enjoy their full freedom and
independence first, that they better study and delve into their past
second. Self-knowledge is essential, and yet so many peoples of the
Horn of Africa area have been prevented from that! Well, this was
the main target of the colonial criminals. So, a free life, a
freedom of movement and of thought, of expression and of cult, and a Union will come later.

Look
what happened in Europe! Because they separated first, the Czech Republic
and Slovakia were able to meet again and become one country
along with many others this time, within Europe. Modern European
History proves that free consultation, free deliberations, free
negotiations of free, independent, democratic peoples, citizens and
leaders is the only way to a possible multicultural Europe. It is
not Hitler who united Europe by imposing Germans in a totalitarian way. Oromos must disentangle
from the Amhara racist curse, prove that they can arrange their
affairs far better when alone, free, and independent, and then the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Finfinne will consider options
towards greater Eastern African designs.

VF:
In one of your debates, you have suggested that Oromos will be the
regional superpower and dictate the future of the Horn of Africa
region. You have said that “Strengths
are pulled in the Horn of Africa area, and not to your favor!”,
apparently referring to Abyssinia. You have also stated that they
are managed and maneuvered without their choosing.
Oromo scholars do not see Oromos going beyond achieving freedom for
the Oromo people. In fact, they seriously argue that Oromos should
not repeat the practice we have seen in Abyssinian politics. What
picture are you looking at? In other words, how and why can what you
stated be possible?

Prof: Let me state that any country, small or large, new or old, can
become a regional locomotive for the development and the progress;
this was the meaning of my words. I did not mean it in the sense of
large population, and actually if we go beyond the unavoidable
splitting of both, Sudan and Abyssinia, there are still large
countries in the area, having larger population than what a newly
independent Oromo country is supposed to represent. Tanzania is
already home to 37 million people, Kenya represents already 32
million people, big countries, you know! But what is their GDP?
Their per capita GDP? Their fixed line, mobile line, Internet
penetration? You understand that there are several other parameters:
education, number of students, universities,
foreign direct investment, balance of payments, exports/imports,
economy growth, industry growth and so on. A country never becomes a
leader just because of representing a large, or even the largest,
population. If this were the case, we would all be ruled by China
and India! But as you see these countries are not as important as
the US, France, Great Britain, Germany, Russia! France led the
anti-US front before the Iraq
war, not China! On the international scene, Italy is more important
than India! Just a few days ago, when its interests were threatened
in Sudan, China did not dare to veto! So, when it comes to
parameters like the aforementioned, what matters is the shrewd and
sharp thought, the anticipation of things to come, the conceptually
rich mind, the in-depth knowledge of the issues, and consequently
the introduction of highly advanced plans and viable projects of
great perspective. Until now, all have plunged into the marshes of
underdevelopment for various reasons, as far as Eastern Africa is
concerned. It is to be hoped that a new force, a new state, with a
youthful approach to politics, introduce a wide range of new
concepts and ideas that the rest will have to follow and catch up
with.

That the leaders of the Oromo self-determination effort do not see
so far I can, of course, understand; they have to focus on present
day issues, and prepare the mobilization against the tyrannical
Abyssinian oppression in the present day Ethiopia itself. Fighting
for freedom of expression, and freedom of vote, facing the brutal
methods the Amhara/Tigray tyrannical regime attempts to employ
against the oppressed masses of Oromos, Sidamas, Afars, Ogadenis and
others, this is the task of the day. It is correct what you say and
what Oromo liberation leaders argue, namely ‘that Oromos should not
repeat the practice we have seen in Abyssinian politics’. No one
wants to see another cemetery of peoples in Eastern Africa. When I
said that a new Oromo country could become a regional superpower, I
was speaking in terms of a locomotive of development, of a
multipartite, multicultural, multi-religious and
multiethnic way to common progress and peace.

How
this will be achieved? Certainly through education, culture and
political mobilization. The formation of a young class of
specialists and technocrats able to run a modern country, not an
archaic dysfunctional replica of today’s Abyssinia, the preservation
and the cultivation of the Oromo culture and the study of the
Kushitic – Oromo past, always interconnected with modern, fresh
approaches to and concepts of the Humanities, and the general
political mobilization that will enhance the sensitivity in terms of
the African solidarity, against the only African colonial regime –
that of the Abyssinian tyrants – and against the Western democratic
involvement, these are the aspects of the triptych of the Oromo
liberation and ultimate independence.

Of
course, one must expect a great Western interest, but one must rely
on one’s own forces, effort, and commitment. You are right to notice
my reference to foreign involvement against Abyssinia. This archaic
structure of state must not be permitted to exist; it consists in
such a flagrant rejection of the concept of the human progress
towards Humanism and Democracy that it cannot be allowed to develop
its Christian Monophysitic religious extremism anymore. No one wants
a Monophysitic – heretic – Christian Khomeini rule from Gondar, Axum
or Addis Ababa in order to propagate the forthcoming fight between
his ‘Jesus’ and a supposed Anti-Christ. More and more people in the
correct positions in America understand that religious fanaticism is
a problem, whether it comes from Saudi Arabia or from Abyssinia. It
is always criminal whether Ossama bin Laden mobilizes ignorant people to kill Westerners or
Abyssinian Debteras drum up ignorant, starving people to attack
Christian Catholic or Protestant monks in Abyssinia. Obscurantism runs high, and thousands of valuable Gueze
manuscripts – totally incomprehensible to the quasi-illiterate
Monophysitic monks of
Abyssinia – are out of reach for any serious Western scholar because
of the Amhara Debteras’ fear that the Western scholars will unveil
negative points of the Axumite/Gondar medieval rulers!

VF:
It seems that your interest is to make Abyssinians, in particular,
and the Horn of Africa region, in general, face east toward the Middle East
and Indo-China instead of inside out or west toward Africa and the West. You seem to attach future economic interest to
this view. From history’s perspective, there is certainly less
reason for the Kushites to face the Middle East and beyond than for the Abyssinians. Politically, it appears
that the
Middle East is still characterized by mythology than reality. It is
a region that still preaches in only one language. In this sense,
the Middle East may be in its Dark Age and trailing behind Africa. If the Abyssinians were to face toward the
Middle East, doesn’t that cause some friction among the group that
would prefer to face the Middle East versus the group that would
prefer to look inside out or face toward Africa and the West?

Prof: First, historically speaking, the Kushites always expressed an
interest for the Middle East and the Mediterranean World. Egypt had
a lot of interests in the Aegean, in Cyprus and in Palestine.
Ethiopian Meroe was in continuous contact with the Roman world, a
statue’s head of Octavian Augustus was found at Meroe itself
(present day Bagrawiyah in Sudan), embassies were constantly
exchanged, stylistic architectural influences seem apparent either
in the imperial baths at Meroe or at the so-called ‘Roman kiosk’
temple of Naqa, just to mention a few indications, and then in the
Atlas North-Eastern African region, Khammitic Berbers intermingled
with Carthaginians. Later on, the contacts between the Kushitic
Christian state of Makkuria, the middle of the three Christian
Sudanese kingdoms, had certainly strong contacts with the Greek
Patriarchate at Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman
Empire, since it introduced both Greek language as holy, religious
language, and Makkurian language (a later form of Meroitic), written
in Greek characters, as administrative language. All this testifies
to great exposure to and exchange with the Middle East
and the Mediterranean world.

Although this is the case, I did not actually call for a shift of
interest of the Horn of Africa countries towards the Middle East, instead of another direction, let it be the rest of
Africa. And actually I do not believe such a perspective; there is
so much to be done in the Horn of Africa area, such infrastructure
that is missing, that all the interest must be directed
introspectively in the predefined Horn of Africa Countries Union
area. For every local people and tribe it will be an extroverted
attitude and interest extended up to the borders of the vast union
that has the size of Brazil (around 8.2 million square kilometer),
and for all together it will be an introverted interest expressed
within the entire area! Major projects can be undertaken at the
level of construction, communications, industrial development,
education, tourism, services and so on. So the interest should focus
on this regional development. By lowering up to annihilating taxes among the
member states, one will create an initial tendency that could be
accentuated by big projects in construction and education that will
have great countries of the world involved here. The area must act
as a center of radiation, and this is not going to happen by means
of reference to other areas, be they the Middle East, India
or Europe.

You
say that the Middle East still preaches in one language, and that is
wrong of course. Well, your statement is correct only partly. Turkey
is the center of the Middle East, Iran is the second most important
Middle Eastern country, Pakistan is also Middle East, and Israel is
finally there since 1948! You cannot advance anymore the trash
colonial theory of French academia and diplomats, namely the
erroneous approach that equates the Middle East with the
Arabic-speaking countries! The four most important powers of the
Middle East are not Arabic speaking! It makes therefore no sense to
speak about Arabic-speaking countries as representative of the
Middle East. If you want to refer to the tyrannical imposition of Arabic
language throughout the so-called Arabic speaking countries,
something that results from the 2-century long colonial brainwash
campaign named ‘Arab nationalism’, of course I agree that it is very
negative, it brings only disastrous results, and it cannot be taken
as a model. But the
Middle East is not the realm of the Arabic ideology debased and
tyrannical regimes. They are only part of the Middle East! Turkey can certainly be taken as
a model in many aspects by the Horn of Africa countries. Can you
imagine that in all the Arabic speaking countries, the realm of the
so-called ‘Arab world’, fewer books are annually translated from all
the languages of the world into Arabic than in Greece
from all the languages into Greek. And yet, tiny 10 million people
Greece is a very mediocre European country! Comparison with Turkey
would also be disastrously prejudicial to the so-called ‘Arabs’! How
do you expect me to suggest something like that, since I repeatedly
published articles demanding the stipulation of Aramaic as national
language in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, the introduction of Coptic in
the schools throughout Egypt, and the imposition of several official
languages in Sudan? I equally published articles in favor of the
preservation of Soqotri and Mehri, successive forms of Ancient
Yemenite languages, in Yemen…

Neither in Abyssinia nor in Sudan should there be a friction among
Africano-centrists and Middleasterno-centrists! Both, Sudan and
Abyssinia, as well as all the possible countries that may come to
free and independent life after the potential splitting of these
two old colonial schemes, plus all the other countries of the Horn
of Africa Union, as well as Yemen, Oman, Mozambique, and Madagascar,
are – and must feel they are – an entirely different area, a vast
middle zone between Africa, Asia, India, the Middle East and the
rest of the world. This will bring them closer to each other, and closer
to success.

VF: In line with
the previous question, one of the serious confusions many people
have is the failure to make distinction between a name that
identifies a person's roots and a name that may identify that
person with his/her faith. For instance, you could have been named
Erol, a name that describes your Turkish identity and follow your
faith. What is you opinion on this?

Prof: Erol is a name that identifies the linguistic identity of a
person, showing automatically that the name bearer is a Turk. Since
most of the Turks accepted Islam, it means that the person in
question is a Muslim. But it is not a usual Muslim name like Ali,
Hassan, Hussein, Muhammad, Abdullah or Nasraddin! As far as I am
concerned, I belong to the happy few who have chosen their own
religion, and their own name. I was born Christian, and baptized
Cosmas, a name meaning in Greek ‘the person that belongs to the
World’. Cosmas was an excellent travel companion for 37 years, and
let me discover a great Aramaic Nestorian monk, merchant, traveler,
erudite and theoretician, the famous 6th century author of a ‘Christian
Topography’, Cosmas Indicopleustes, the ‘Indian navigator’ as his
surname suggests. His Christian Topography is valuable for the
history of many countries of the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean from
Egypt and Eritrea to Yemen and Sri Lanka. After a certain moment, my
historical studies led me to a complete rejection of Christianity,
in the same approach with that of the famous French scholar Robert
Ambelain, whose renowned ‘Heavy secrets of Golgotha’ has become a point of reference. I renounced Christianity, and
since the mention of the religion was obligatory on the Greek
citizens identity cards, I became for many years a Greek citizen
‘with no religion’; needless to add that I was never atheist. Later
on, when I was 37 years old, I accepted Islam officially – although
I had already been a real Muslim believer for about two years – and
then I selected my current two names that, of course, mean a lot to
me. ‘Cosmas’ had accomplished a long circumnavigation, and it was an
excellent vehicle! It kept being somewhat representative, you know!
In a way, I have always belonged to the cosmos! But all this is a
personal affair, and I never tried to show myself as an example for
others. Two things are sure: first, Islam was a great civilization;
and second, I feel identical with the most fundamental
philosophical, theoretical, artistic and literary, cosmological and
esoteric approaches of Islam. But as I said, this is important to
me, and only to me. The universal spheres of Mohyieldin Ibn al
Arabi are a decorous beauty that I do not want to miss! Do not think
that Islam is hedjab, five prayers per day, prohibition of alcohol
and premarital sex, and zakat! The rigorous stereotypes of fanatic,
uncultured and quasi-illiterate sheikhs do not express the real
Islam at all. They represent the decadence and the deformation I
referred to earlier.

Within the text of the Christian Topography, we find a map of the
‘Oikoumene’ (the inhabited world) as designed by Cosmas
Indicopleustes. The Nile is named Gihon, quite biblically, the
Mediterranean is called ‘Roman Gulf’, the Red Sea (as ‘Arabic Gulf’)
and the Persian Gulf are depicted as of the same size. Around the
three continents, Asia, Africa, and Europe, flows the Ocean of Soft
Waters, and at the extreme East (right) is located the Eden, the
Paradise. According to the Cosmas Indicopleustes’ theory, the
surface of the earth is not round (as it was believed, when the
geocentric system prevailed, and the earth was not viewed as a
sphere), but an oblong rectangular. Following this approach, Cosmas
Indicopleustes developed the theory that the Universe is not a
Sphere (as believed earlier by all the people of the world), but a
polyhedron with a hemi-cylindrical upper part - precise copy of the
Tabernacle of the Ark of the Covenant.

VF:
In Ethiopia,
some people say when we encounter some adversaries from afar, we
fight them together. When we do not have them, we fight each other.
The resistance movement during Italy’s occupation of present day
Ethiopia from 1935 to 1941 is a case in point. Obviously, some of
your views were not welcome on Ethioindex forum and some
participants considered your views as an adversary’s views. In your
debate on that forum, did you at any point sense this?

Prof: You are right for the past, things happened as you certainly
know very well, and as you say. But perhaps one could come up with a
strong criticism about that attitude, when expressed by the Oromo
political leadership that missed eventually an opportunity to reach
independence, and get rid of the Abyssinian group’s tyranny, as
performed under the rule of Haile Selassie. But the situation is
not reproduced today! I am glad to report that to the hysterical and
paranoiac reactions of the uneducated, uncultured and ignorant
Abyssinian participants on the forum, the support, the repeated thanks, the
apologies for the participants’ barbarism, the enthusiastic backing,
and the overwhelming encouragement expressed from the part of
representatives of the oppressed and tyrannized Oromos, Sidamas,
Ogadenis, Afars and others drove me to the conclusion that I had to
keep writing and diffusing knowledge, which is a need for these
people, and a mission for me, while being very much hated by the
insulting, pathetic, ill-mannered Abyssinian participants!

After the Medrek forum moderators have been attacked by this
ill-mannered participants for allowing oppressed Oromos and others
express their opinion and their rightful indignation against the
criminal, dictatorial, and alien Abyssinian regime, the moderators
reacted in a way that I found at least very strange and
unjustifiable. They offered positions of moderator to many
participants, of course of all origins, Oromo, Tigray, Amhara, and
they accorded them the possibility to delete articles and threads at
will! Of course, an opposite moderator would have the possibility to
re-publish the deleted – rather hidden – text! But this issue raised
two problems. First, there would be a technical problem, you would
see your article hidden, contact a ‘friendly’ moderator, and ask him
to unhide it! This is not practical, and this is not serious for
adults.

Even worse, there is a great ethical problem that not a single
serious and unbiased person in the world would accept. By appointing
ignorant and ill-mannered people – and these were exclusively Amhara
besotted insulters – as moderators, you offer them the possibility
to delete a serious in-depth historical analysis, and universally
accepted academic conclusions that are not allowed in dictatorial,
backward, and obscurantist Abyssinia, because if they were, they
would destroy completely the tenebrous falsehood that these
brainwashed Abyssinian participants believe. The eventuality that
these people delete a scholarly opinion equals to the potentiality
that in the year 2004 you accept a new … Hitler! Well, we just
cannot accept any other Hitler anymore! This is all! I therefore
stopped even visiting that website, and I do not intend to change my
opinion.

I
have my feedback whatsoever! Many people write straight to me either
to thank me for my contributions, to ask various questions, and/or
to express their deep curse against the Cemetery-of-Peoples Abyssinia, the worst Hell on the surface of the Earth, the last apartheid
in
Africa. I came, therefore, to know that the situation worsened, dozens
of serious articles have been deleted, learned participants have
been banned, and the rotten-minded moderators delete every article
that makes a reference to the Catholic Encyclopedia, a serious and
respectable website that is an excellent source of knowledge (entry
‘Abyssinia’) about the crimes perpetrated in Abyssinia against
Christian priests, monks, researchers and missionaries. It is a
disgrace and a source of contamination for all the world, and I do
not intend to leave it like that. The state of Abyssinia must
express in public its apologies to the rest of the world for having
deliberately executed devoted researchers, who intended to study
and publish valuable Gueze manuscripts that the illiterate
Monophysitic Debteras keep hidden in their heretic monasteries. But,
what is written in these manuscripts? That the Anti-Christ is an
Amhara?

To
describe the entire situation I faced in Ethioindex in just one
sentence, I would say that the Amhara participants reacted as if I
unveiled their crime or – even worse – as if I caught them in
flagrante delicto; it is not actually less than a crime what they
have done so long! Usurping another ethnic and national name is a
criminal act. If Sudan
was not disoriented into the Pan-Arabic falsification and diverted
into the ‘Arab-Islamic’ (anti-Islamic) terrorism, Khartoum would have certainly demanded the
immediate stop of use of the usurped name of
Ethiopia.

Actually, only two potential pretenders to the name of ‘Ethiopia’
exist, namely Sudan – as the place that was called by that Ancient
Greek name – and the people of Oromo – as the majority among the
plausible descendants of the Ancient Ethiopian Meroites. Perhaps,
following developments in both Sudan and Abyssinia, the Arabic
speaking Meroites of Sudan, and the Meroitic origin Oromos may find their common origin and meet each other in the
search of the glorious past of Ethiopia to which they both have
right of inheritance. With the other peoples of Sudan getting first
their independence, in the South the Dinka and the Nuer, in the West
the Fur and the Hausa – speaking people, in the North the Nubians,
and in the East the Beja, the Arabic speaking Meroites could make a
long-term alliance with the Oromo, search and find their own
Kushitic identity, and finally identify themselves as real Africans.

VF: As you may very
well know, the friction between religions of the Middle East, not
the religions per se, is a major problem in that region. In fact,
this friction seems to have reached The Sudan and in some people’s
views, it is a concern for the countries of the Horn of Africa. In
one of your communications with a participant on Ethioindex, you
mentioned “… it seems that the days of the rising crescent disturb
your mental functions! After the full moon, you will recover to some
extent." I believe the Quran teaches that in the end, all the
peoples of the world will believe in Islam? Your statement
appears in line with this teaching. Would you explain what you
mean?

Prof: Well, I understand your question, but I do not understand your
quotation! I was speaking to a lunatic Amhara fanaticized
participant on Ethioindex’s forum, and I was hinting that his
exacerbated case of hysteria will calm down after the full moon,
which is what doctors say for cases of lunatic people. It seems that
their worst time is the first half of the lunar month. This is
unrelated to the issue of the moon as a symbol among Muslims, and
also unrelated to the problematic role that misinterpreted beliefs
and manipulated faiths play in fanaticizing masses in many parts of
the World. Christian fanaticism runs high in America, in Europe, in
Russia, Hindu fanaticism has become very perilous in the
subcontinent and in Sri Lanka, Zionist Jews are very fanatic too,
and the phenomenon concerns Thailand, Japan, and other places of the
world. If you only count how many people wait a Messiah, Jesus,
Mahdi, Maitreya, and other mythical figures – or misinterpreted
historical figures, which makes no difference – said to come for a
second time to save the world (from God only knows what !!!!), you
realize that the entire Mankind is very close to the edge.

What you say is true and wrong, or rather misinterpreted (not you
personally – I mean Muslims and all sorts of other religious
thinkers and interpreters), at the same time. You say that ‘the Quran
teaches that in the end, all the peoples of the world will believe
in Islam’. But this sentence misinterpreted by a Muslim may be taken
as meaning that at the end all the Jews will reject Judaism in order
to accept Islam, admitting it was not correct to do it earlier! Or
that they should (‘must’, ‘will’, ‘have to’ – any verb you like) be
forced to accept Islam. From this point start problems originating
from Muslim false believers. On the other hand, the same sentence
misinterpreted by a Jew makes him say that this sentence proves that
Islam is a violent religion of the sword that oppresses minorities
to extinction, having no respect for the other, advancing
totalitarian approaches, and necessitating therefore very hard
tackling. Similar misinterpretations may occur in the case of other
inter-religious relationships.

But
perhaps the teaching of the Quran that at the end, all the world will
be Islamic may only signify a peaceful world in which, originating
from different and even conflicting backgrounds, various people may
ultimately reach a common understanding of the same true
monotheistic principles that have been encapsulated in all the
backgrounds and in all the religions. In a way that one, being
perfect Buddhist, may be also an excellent Muslim without even
understanding it.

VF:
Waaqeffanna (an Oromo wisdom tradition), Christianity and Islam are
the three major doctrines that the Oromo people follow. To the
extent that all these doctrines may be wisdom traditions, some
people view that Waaqeffanna is an answer to the Oromos for the
challenge of the wind of friction between the religions of the
Middle East. This is especially supported by some relationships between
Waaqeffanna and the other two religions. A recent study by Dr. Marco
Bassi of
Bologna University in Italy suggests that Oromo religion is
monotheist and similar to Christianity and Islam. Another scholar of
the 17th Century, M. de Aimeida had the following to say:
"the Gallas (Oromo) are neither Christians, moors nor heathens, for
they have no idols to worship." Both the Bible and the Quran have
excellent references to Kush. In Amos 9:7, it is said “aren’t you
like the people of Cushite to me, O people of Isra’el”. Also Prophet
Mohammad has said Ethiopia is the land of the righteousness wherein
no one is wronged. Obviously, one of the major achievements of both
Christianity and Islam are to tend to monotheism. Based on these
facts, there is some theory that goes both prophets may have been
inspired by Cushitic world outlook. It seems that it is based on such
background that Oromos see value in Waaqeffanna. What is your opinion on
this?

Prof: First of all, I do not accept at all the concept of
Christianity as a monotheistic religion! The trinity is a typical
polytheistic concept, and more precisely it originates from
Mithraism, the Persian origin religion that prevailed throughout the
Roman Empire in the 2nd and the 3rd century CE, before many of its basic
doctrines were passed on to Christianity. Mithras is One and Three
at the same time, Mithras is born on the 25th of
December, of course in a Cave, with shepherds attending. Mithras comes to the world by
means of an immaculate birth, Mithras performs miracles, Mithras
offers a Last Supper, Mithras is sacrificed to save the Mankind by
means of His blood, and then to be resurrected, and even ascended to
the Skies. On the other hand, a vast polytheistic influence has been
exercised over Christianity by Isidism, the complex and vast system
of Isiac cults and beliefs that were turning around the Ancient
Egyptian Goddess Aset (in Greek Isis). Isis is Mother of God, and
even at a pictorial level the Christian Virgin with the Infant
resembles Isis with Harpocrates (Greek form of the Isis’ child’s
name ‘Horus the Child’, in Egyptian Hieroglyphics ‘Hor pa Hered’).
All this is only a partial and brief enumeration of related
arguments.

Ptolemy XII presents his offerings to Horus and Isis of Philae on
the eastern half of the second pylon of the Isis temple at the
‘island of the end’ as signifies in Ancient Egyptian the name of the
island (‘pa irek’). The Egyptian name became the object of phonetic
confusion among the Greeks of the Ptolemaic years, who called the
island Philae, hinting at the presence of the Egyptian priestesses
of Isis as ‘friends’ (in Greek ‘philae’). Philae, at 5km distance in
the south of Aswan, was the last non Christian operating temple, and
was closed by specific decree of Justinian as late as 540 CE.

So, the Hebrew religion, Judaism, Islam, Waaqeffanna, many other
currents within several religions can be taken monotheistic and
aniconic, but not Christianity.

I
accept that Waaqeffanna is a monotheist Weltanshauung, but I cannot
at the present state of related research and knowledge call it
‘religion’. A theoretical system of popular beliefs is far from
being a religion. The quintessence of the religion is an
understanding, interpretation, and identification of the Holy; it
constantly implies holy places, sacred objects, temples and priests.
Even within Islam, despite the fact that it was explicitly preached
by Prophet Muhammad that priests are prohibited, the
professionalized faith led to the creation of schools, and
organizations reproducing all these useless and fake sheikhs that
preach terrorism and ultimately desecrate Islam. One can say by now
that Islam has been completely Christianized.

Now
because various – known and unknown – developments led the Kushitic
Oromos to the monotheistic and aniconic conceptualization of the
faith, we cannot be led to the conjecture that aniconic cult and
monotheism were typically Kushitic. Ethiopian Meroe was particularly
polytheistic, and the religious impact of Khammitic Egypt on the
early Kushitic phases of civilization with epicenter at Kerma and at
Napata was polytheistic. Of course, there were great
schools of monotheism in Egypt, the Hermupolitan and the
Heliopolitan dogmas and systems are of strong monotheistic
inclination, contrarily to the Memphitic and the Theban systems, a
great monotheistic rise of Aton occurred in the 14th century BCE
with Akhenaton and Nefertiti at its top, but all this does not allow
us to say that the Egyptians were monotheistic. The same concerns
the Ancient Ethiopians, the Kushites, whom the Ancient Egyptians
considered as highly experienced Black Magic practitioners! Of
course, we can find some monotheistic elements among the Meroites,
but this does not lead to a conclusion that ‘Kushites were
typically monotheistic’.

The
same is also true for the Semitic peoples; we attest early Semitic
monotheism in Mesopotamia already during the 3rd millennium BCE. We have strict Assyrian monotheism in
Nineveh during the Sargonid times (722 – 625 BCE), and we have explicit Babylonian polytheism during the Nabonid
times (625 – 539 BCE). The same is correct for the Indo-Europeans, we have
monotheistic Zoroasterian Persians during the Achaemenid times (550
– 330
BCE), and we have polytheistic and monotheistic tendencies in
Greece.

Speaking about Prophets, I believe that what characterized their
minds were a concept and a principle; it was always a matter of
mental abstract procedure of perceiving the idea and the essence of
the Divine in a totally monotheistic way. I do not believe that
cultic, social and ideological data mattered to them and their
intellectual endeavors. Prophet Eliyah may well have known details
about the Egyptian monotheism of Aton, as introduced by Pharaoh
Akhenaton, an entire historical phenomenon to which Moses and the
Exodus seem to be an emanation and a continuation, but we cannot
afford to say that Eliyah was inspired by that fact. We have full
proof that the prophetic thought is a high level abstract
conceptualization, not an inspiration due to earlier events. The
early priestly monotheistic perception of the Creation, as attested
in some Assyrian – Babylonian, Hittite and Egyptian holy texts,
seems also to be a matter of abstract conceptualization. Later
literary, religious, and ideological compilations were not.

Finally, there is no such a system of thought as ‘Kushite
monotheism’ or ‘Semitic monotheism’ or ‘Indo-European monotheism’.
Monotheism is monotheism; the cultural environment may vary but
matters very little. Akhenaton, Solomon, and Sinakherib as rulers,
and the editors of the ‘Egyptian Book of the Hours’, of the Assyrian
Messianic Epic ‘Etana’, of the Hermetic ‘Poimandres’ (the first book
said to be written by God Himself, this time not by Allah but by
Hermes Trismegistus), and of the books of Jonah, of Daniel and of
Tobias, as well as Thales, Pythagoras and Socrates, as authors and
conceptual thinkers, are all very close to one another.

VF: As a
follow up question to your answers above, it is true that
monotheism is monotheism as you very beautifully put it. At the same
time, how it was conceptualized and has been adhered to matters. In
your answers to one of the questions in Part II, you wrote: “Without
Akhenaten’s religion there would never have been a certain Moses –
Musa.” In a 2001 article, John Graham, a Canadian who worked for an
NGO in Ethiopia and also wrote extensively on the cultural history
in Ethiopia, reported the following: “Moses, for one, is said
to have derived his monotheist beliefs from the example of Waaqa
[equivalent of God – hence Waaqeffanna]. As with Moses, the staff is
a sacred object for the Waaqa followers.” By staff, he was referring
to Bokku, a stick like object, held by any Oromo leader, and Kalacha,
a rare spiritual symbol kept by Oromo Qallus – spiritual leaders.
There was a question in Part III regarding Kiya’s description. She
was the
wife of
Pharaoh Akhenaton; some Egyptians believe he was the first person
to conceptualize monotheism. The description of her name has a
striking sentiment with the words meaning in Oromo language. Are we looking here at some visible dots
and connections of history? What does this indicate to you?

Prof: There is a difference; with the Exodus dated at the times of
Merenptah, Akhenaton antedates Moses approximately120 years; we can
safely claim that the great grandfather of Moses lived at the times
of Akhenaton. There is a continuation of ideas, ideological and
philosophical, theological and literary approaches, their social
events ensuing from one another. The ‘white terror’ of the restored Amun Theban polytheism, as practiced by rulers controlled by or
expressing the Theban priesthood, Tutankhamun, Ay, Horemheb, Seti I
and Ramses II, was awful for the monotheistic party of Egypt during
all that time between the collapse of the Amarna monotheism of
Akhenaton and the Exodus. Under Moses many Egyptians left along with
the Hebrews! So, we can say that without Akhenaton there would be no
Moses.

Now
comparing the rise (or restatement) of a monotheistic religious
system among fugitive masses in the desert and solitude of Sinai
with a monotheistic Weltanschauung of a settled community in the
African pasturelands, when various peoples and languages are
involved, is – I am afraid – seems farfetched. Furthermore, there is
a period of no less than 3000 years that separates the two systems
of thought and belief! It leads to generalizations that help nobody.

VF: As
another follow up question to the previous question, it is true that
there is no prophet from the Oromo people. Some Oromos have asked
why and one of the explanations is that no Oromo got order from God
to be His messenger or no Oromo was willing to shoulder the
responsibility of being God’s messenger. As you stated above, what
is in religion is the true monotheistic principles. In this sense, isn’t
religion a belief system? Where is the demarcation between what is
religion and what is not? If all the people believe in monotheism
and that will make them Muslim as you said and supposing that
Waaqeffanna was monotheist long before Islam, it would mean that a
Muslim is a Waaqeffata according to your rationale. Is this fair
rationale?

Prof: Well,
if we limit it within Hebrew religion, Judaism, and Christianity
environment, you are right, no prophet originated from the Oromo
people. But if we apply the Islamic approach, it is not quite sure!
According to Islam, there have been several unknown or unidentified
prophets at all times and allover the world. Of course this
statement concerns the period before the last prophet, Muhammad, who
has been described as the Seal of the prophets, but however! It
enlarges the realm of the prophecy tremendously! To give you an
example, it can mean that Akhenaton was a prophet, and/or that an
unknown average fellow of that – or any other – period before the
prophet Muhammad could have been a prophet without any other person
understanding it. So, in this case, there may have been a Kushite
prophet.

Then you ask
me whether a belief system is a religion or not. Well, it is
certainly not! Religion implies certainly cult. If you strip a
religion from its cult, then there are not religious acts,
ceremonies, procedures, litanies, all the action goes away! What is
left is an ideology, a philosophy, a Weltanschauung, a belief system
as you say, but then the ‘religion’ would look like the
philosophical schools of Thales, Pythagore, and others!

However,
from all the rest, I retain the exchange of terms, Muslim and
Waaqeffata. Names do not matter that much, I believe! What arrived
as system first is certainly Islam I believe. From 370 CE (fall of
Meroe and dispersion/departure of the great majority of the Meroite
– Ethiopians) to 622 CE (explosion of Islam), you have got just 250
years! It is impossible that from a polytheistic system turning
around Apademak, Amun, Isis, Horus and other Meroitic and Egyptian
gods, within 250 years, the ancestors of the Oromos, errant around
the banks of Blue Nile, shifted to a monotheistic system without
idols. This necessitates a greater span of time, and a virtually
different natural environment, I mean settlement far from the Nile. But what comes first and what comes second does not mean much! What
matters is diachronic presence of the same ideals.

VF: So, do
you consider Scientology as a religion or not?

Prof: The subject is vast, when it comes to anything that goes from
the behavioral social system, the popular beliefs, the religion, the
ideology, the philosophy, and the secret societies of initiation.
You understand that I classify Scientology among the latter! When we
refer to secret societies, let it be understood very well, we do not
mean societies, associations and organizations that are totally
unknown, and their existence is known only to members. And we do not
mean of course the secret services of a country.

Secret
societies are known associations, organizations, lodges and/or
ateliers with their locals publicly known, but their members
undisclosed (usually with the exception of few), their hierarchy
unidentified and possibly unrevealed even to a great part of the
membership, and their ideas, beliefs, eventually ritual practices,
cultic acts, ceremonies and litanies hermetically secret in the
sense that something ‘holy’ cannot be revealed to ‘dogs’ as they
were saying in the Antiquity. It is not just philosophical elitism
like that of Cicero, for instance!

You do not
need to refer to Scientology, a recent group initiated by Ron
Hubbard, to speak of secret societies. There are plenty of them
allover the world, and it has always been like this! Of course, some
of them do not accept the appellation of secret society for
themselves, stating that they are ‘open’, newcomers can easily join,
and things like that, but of course this is nonsense, since when you
ask them to reveal their upper hierarchical level teachings, ideas,
ceremonies, initiations, rites, clothes, symbols and the like, they
refuse to do so. This is secrecy, whether they like or not.
Certainly the important and powerful among the secret societies, the
most historical and traditional ones that rely on secret
transmission through young apprentices’ initiation, do not bother at
all if you call them ‘secret society’ or not. But the newer
societies do not want to be characterized by an ambivalent word that
may make many people reluctant to join, depriving therefore the
expansion of the pyramidal structure that needs large base and many
disciples. But, of course, they are wrong, because nonsecret
societies are for instance political parties, non governmental
organizations, cultural associations and the like, since they state
their entire ideological system, belief, approach and interests to
all openly without any restriction or initiation.

The famous
Templars – the ferocious threat to Papal power at the times of the
pyramids, the Hashashin Ismailiyah and their Old Man of the Mountain
– mentioned even by Marco Polo, the Cathares – a survival of the
Late Antiquity Gnosticisms, the Great Eikonomachoi, the rejecters of
the icons within the Eastern Roman Empire who shook that state for
more than 100 years until the final and tyrannical imposition of the
icons at 842 CE, the Rosicrucians, the Free Masons, the Jesuits, and
several other organizations, the Opheitai (Snake symbolists) of
ancient Alexandria, the colleges of priests in several ancient
Egyptian temples like those at Philae, Edfu, Kom Ombo and Denderah,
the Chaldaic Priesthood of Late Antiquity Babylonia, the priestly
college of Ishtar of Arbil in Assyria, the Persian and Roman
Mithraic secret societies, the Egyptian Isiac mysteries as enacted
by the Isis secret societies throughout the Roman Empire, the
Hermetists of the Late Antiquity and the European Middle Ages, the
Islamic times Alchemists, so many groups, some extinct, some
surviving, some disguised under varying appellations, consist in the
Dark Side of the Moon, as far as History of the Mankind is
concerned. And Shakespeare spoke symbolically about his beloved
‘Dark Lady’…

What does it
mean therefore, if one group, society or party practices a really
undisclosed religion? Well, here one should first make clear that it
is quite possible that a secret society

has only political scope
of activities,

focuses exclusively on
financial issues, or

represents a number of
people with strong conviction and faith in an ideological and
philosophical system that they do not want to make it publicly
known in order to avoid attacks, rejection, secession and /or
alteration.

In all these
cases the secret society has nothing to do with a religion,
absolutely nothing. However, if the society practices a cult,
introduces rituals, fixes holy days, and carries out specific
ceremonies and litanies during these ‘holy’ days, deploying
therefore the entire spectrum of a religious performance, then we
have to do with a segregated religion known only its few, selected
and initiated disciples and followers.

To respond
straight to your question, I will simply say that I do not know
whether Scientology belongs to one of the three former categories or
to the latter type, in which case of course it would be a religion.
‘Modern religious and ideological groups’ is not my field…

VF:
I think there are two kinds of people who live in this world: those
who understand it and those who just live in it. Unfortunately, the
latter are plenty and noisy. And I think you are one of the few in
the former kind. With the greatest appreciation, thank you Sir.

Prof: But it was always like this! In the days of Shabaka, Qore at
Napata and Pharaoh at Thebes, and in the days of Arkamani, Qore at
Meroe, in the days of the free Gada congress
participants, and in the days of tenebrous and lugubrious Abyssinian
ruling class oppression. Thank you for your invitation to your well
documented, much enlightening, and much promising website. I believe
that, thanks to the work of people like you, the Voice of Finfinne
will be heard to the four corners of the world, will resonate
within every Oromo and every illuminated person of this world, and
will ultimately be imposed in its correct location, eliminating the
antihuman fabrication of ‘Addis Ababa’.

Thanks to pioneers and vanguard intellectuals like you, the world
came to know that, in your great country, Finfinne means the land of the Living People whereas Addis Ababa signifies the Hell of
the Dead.